Bloodsuckers: Nature's Vampires

An Acknowledgement of Country is a statement that pays respect to the Traditional Custodians of the Country that you are learning or meeting on and recognises their ongoing relationship with Country. The Australian Museum respects and acknowledges the Gadigal people as the Custodians of the land on which the Museum stands.

Which First Nations Country or Nation was your school built upon? If you are unsure contact a local First Nations organisation to find out. You might like to start with the NSW Aboriginal Land Council and the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group.

Ask your students to write an Acknowledgement of Country for your school. To get them started, read more about why an Acknowledgement of Country is important and how to write one in this ABC article.

Activity: Genre Conventions

Think about the media you enjoy consuming and in two minutes, write a short list of your favourite television shows, movies and books.

Next to each one, make note of what genre they are. This could include comedy, horror, fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, mystery, etc.

1. Which genre appeared the most?

Genre conventions are the similarities in form and function within a text. These are established, recognisable elements such as character archetypes, plot points, themes, etc.

2. Write down the literary conventions associated with the genre.

Why is this important?

Genre conventions ensure a narrative resonates with the intended audience. They set, manage and satisfy the expectations of the audience, ensuring that they know what kind of experience they will have.

Activity: Gothic Genre

Gothic fiction is a literary genre that was established in the 18th century in reaction to the age of Enlightenment, a period that was characterised by new scientific discoveries and a sense of progress and reason. The gothic genre rejected the idea that science could explain everything, exploring a darker, irrational side of human nature, replacing reason with fear. The gothic genre would eventually set the literary conventions for modern horror.

Some elements the constitute the genre include:

Setting: castle or old mansion
Atmosphere: mystery, suspense, dark
Narrative devices: omens, visions, the supernatural, madness
Characters: impulsive and tyrannical men, oppressed women

Using these genre conventions, sketch the image of a book cover that encapsulates these ideas.

Read and/or listen to Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

Activity: Unreliable Narrators

An unreliable narrator is the storyteller whose credibility is compromised, who misleads the reader through either deliberate deception or unintentional misguidance. This forces the reader to question the narrative and can build a sense of suspense.

True! — nervous — very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses — not destroyed — not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily — how calmly I can tell you the whole story.

1. Using the opening passage, why is the narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart unreliable, and what impact does this have on the story?
2. A “tell-tale” refers to something that reveals a secret, why is the short story called “The Tell-Tale Heart”?
3. What does the beating heart within the short story symbolise? Keep this in mind for your visit to Bloodsuckers at the Australian Museum!

Read the Log of the Demeter Chapter VII of Bram Stoker’s Dracula to answer the following question.

The text can be found in the following link. The Log of the Demeter takes place in Chapter VII.
Bram Stoker's Dracula

This portion of the book creates a sense of fear without ever explicitly showing Dracula. Instead, it does so through various literary conventions that slowly builds tension. In this chapter, the horror of the unseen is what leads the reader’s imagination to terror.

Take note of the different language techniques that Bram Stoker has used to create a sense of fear within this chapter.

An Acknowledgement of Country is a statement that pays respect to the Traditional Custodians of the Country that you are learning or meeting on and recognises their ongoing relationship with Country. The Australian Museum respects and acknowledges the Gadigal people as the Custodians of the land on which the Museum stands.

Which First Nations Country or Nation was your school built upon? If you are unsure contact a local First Nations organisation to find out. You might like to start with the NSW Aboriginal Land Council and the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group.

Ask your students to write an Acknowledgement of Country for your school. To get them started, read more about why an Acknowledgement of Country is important and how to write one in this ABC article.

Myths and legends have existed in every society, growing out of how early humans tried to understand, explain and remember the world around them. They explained the unknown in the absence of modern science, taught moral lessons, helped people understand who they were and where they came from, and remembered real events.

ACTIVITY: Read the myth of Hades’ abduction of Persephone. This is also known as the myth of Pluto’s abduction of Kore in the Roman mythology.

Hades' abduction of Persephone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfNtAdKgw_s&t=200s

Hades’/Pluto’s abduction of Persephone/Kore is often described as Hades/Pluto emerging from the depths of the earth as it “yawned” open to seize her.

1. What real geological event could the earth “yawning open” describe?

Shrines to both deities have also been uncovered along active fault lines, such as at Acharaca and Hierapolis.

2. What do you think this myth is attempting to explain?

The oldest recorded example of a monster that survived on blood is in a Babylonian prayer. These entities were known as Ekimmu or Utukku, and were spirits of the dead who were not properly buried or honoured with the correct funerary rites. However, the first recorded use of the term vampire in media print was the case of Petar Blagojević, which was published in a Viennese newspaper.

The story of Petar Blagojević

In 1725, in a small village called Kisiljevo in Serbia, a man named Petar Blagojević died and was buried. At first, nothing seemed unusual. But not long after his death, fear began to spread through the village.

Neighbours began to perish suddenly in strange ways, with many villagers swearing that they had seen Blagojevic roaming the streets at night, seeking out the living.

Terrified, the villagers turned to Austrian officials, desperate for help. With permission granted, they opened his grave.

What they found only deepened their fear.

Blagojević’s body showed almost no signs of decay. His skin appeared fresh, and there was blood at his mouth. Even more unsettling, his hair and nails seemed to have grown.

Acting quickly, they drove a wooden stake through his heart. According to reports, fresh blood flowed from his body as they did so. To ensure he could never return, they burned his remains.

Research Task

The case of Petar Blagojević is not the only well documented case of vampirism from that period. Conduct some research on the case of Arnold Paole and identify the similarities and differences between the two cases.

Between the 1730 and 1735, Europe was in the middle of a vampire frenzy. Influential philosopher and writer, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote:

“If there is in the world one attested story it is that of the Vampires. Nothing is missing: process-verbaux (detailed official account), certificates from nobilities, surgeons, priests, magistrates. The juridical proof is most complete”.

Much like other myths, myths about monsters existed to explain the unknown. Vampires were used as a scapegoat for disease in a time when knowledge of bacteria and viruses did not exist. This allowed people to externalise their fear and impose some level of ritual control through actions like exhuming graves, staking and performing burial rites.

Research Task

In groups, find the link between one of the following diseases and vampires

1. Rabies
2. Porphyria
3. Tuberculosis

Pair up with a classmate who researched a disease different to your own and debate which disease was more likely the origin of vampire mythology.

Because the basis of ‘real’ vampire cases was likely to be disease, cases such as Petar Blagojevic and Arnold Paole’s were not dismissed, but officially investigated by the relevant authorities, including doctors, priests and government officials, which then documented vampire cases in written reports.

It is possible that the symptoms of various diseases such as rabies and the natural post-death process of decomposition were interpreted as evidence for supernatural vampirism, giving the stories a historical legitimacy that spread throughout Europe.

A historical study of vampires is not necessarily an investigation into the truth of vampires, but a tool to understand the social values and historical context that was woven into the construction of myths and legends.

Writing Activity

What does a study of vampires reveal about the context, social attitudes and values of 1700’s Europe?

Bloodsuckers: Nature's Vampires is a multisensory exhibition combining history, science, myth and popular culture, making it the perfect exhibition for History and English students alike. Suitable for Stage 4 and 5 students, your students will be able to explore gothic literature, world myths and legends, and how science and history intersect to create compelling narratives.

English Activities

Curation is a form of storytelling, where narratives are built through the careful consideration of objects, text, sound, etc.

As you walk through Bloodsuckers, imagine the exhibition as a text, to be read, watched, analysed and understood the same way you may approach a book or film.

In the same way genre conventions give you the opportunity to create expectations around a text, curatorial decisions exist within the exhibition to create an atmosphere that emphasises the same feelings of gothic literature.

Take note of the types of curatorial decisions within the exhibition. This could include sound, colour, lighting, objects, texts, etc.

History Activities

Bloodsuckers combines history, science and literature to create an exhibition that explores the creatures that rely on blood to survive, both real and mythical.

As you walk through the exhibition consider the following through the abundance of sources:
- the influence of world myths and legends on the construction of the modern vampire
- the function of myths and legends play throughout the world
- the influence of science on the construction of history/myths/legends

English and History Activity

Choose one object in the exhibition that you feel most drawn to. This could be for any reason. Take a photograph of it for an activity back in the classroom.

If an object could speak, what kind of story might it tell?

Objects hold multiple stories, whether they be of their creators, those who used them, or the individuals and events they have witnessed. It is a museum's job to allow these stories to be told.

During your visit you saw a range of different objects, including artefacts, specimens and pop culture memorabilia.

Choose one of the objects that you felt most connected to or were most interested by and write a short story inspired by it. Your story could be written from its perspective, about the object, or involve the object. Ensure that the object remains at the center of the writing.

You can read some examples here: Object Stories

When you write your story be sure to:

• integrate the history you learned at the exhibition
• utilise the genre convention of gothic literature